Later, I will be officially a Councilor of the College of Engineering Student Council

Simple Pasasalamat

First, a big thank you to the people who supported me in this fight. I’d like to thank the countless encouragement I received, personal or through text.

1122 people expressed their belief in me through voting me. A big thanks for exercising your right to vote and of course voting me.

To the people who were not able to vote (for me), you guys are forgiven. Hahahaha. Just imagine if I lost by a small number. Good thing I didn’t.

To the people who didn’t vote for me, you guys are a challenge to me and you keep me grounded. It is not something to prove my worth to you, but a point of me becoming non-complacent.

To my my orgmates, thanks for the support!

The Experience

Two weeks of practices, meetings, brainstorming, grilling and sleepless nights kept me before the campaign. After that, one week of campaign took me to an irreplaceable experience.

I had to wake up really early in the morning and be in the college with my formal attire. Then after some food, I would pin my name plate and be in the mood of campaign. After that, an energy-draining campaign starts.

It’s not the creative delivery of our GPOA that I enjoyed, because I knew that the other party is jollier. It’s the vision of our GPOA that fuelled me on the campaign. It’s not the number of my party-mates and the bonding we had. It’s the shared plan to lead the college with the whole of our hearts. It’s not about what I can achieve if I get in to the ESC. It’s about what the students can achieve.

It’s not about the wordings of our campaign, but the handshakes I did. I told one of my friends that I really took time to handshake to people during campaign. He laughed at me and kind of told me that it is so traditional. But it didn’t stop me from handshaking people. More than they want to know me is I want to know them. It was my way to communicate with the people what I am bringing to the council: a student-centered council. Though I knew some people treated my handshakes as a form of hypocrisy, I believe that there were more people who received my message.

On the elections, I won’t deny that there were things that I considered “attack” on me. I am not incumbent, I know. But I do not have the experience? This caused me a lot of mind stress. Basta, I won’t expound on this anymore. But I stand firm on what I said on the miting de avance: Hindi mahalaga kung sino ang nakaupo, ang mahalaga ay kung sino ang tatayo para sa ‘yo.

These two people inspired me that I can. Both parties had already both tried to ran a non-incumbent. Even the incumbent Chairperson was not incumbent when she ran (from the other party).

ARISE

Alliance for Responsive Involvement and Student Empowerment

These brilliant people are really the best. I think it’s not the kabibuhan that matters, it’s the heart of leadership. And I believe that ARISE is lucky to find 21 leaders in the college. 21 people who stood up. 21 people who had experiences. 21 people who had the passion to serve. 21 people who had a vision for the college. 21 people who wanted nothing less than a council for the students.

Now

Later is our induction. And before I get inducted, I just want to assure the votes of people.